title: Factors that enhance English-speaking speech-language pathologists' transcription of Cantonese-speaking children's consonants.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate speech-language pathology students' ability to identify errors and transcribe typical and atypical speech in Cantonese, a nonnative language.
  
  
  METHODS
  Thirty-three English-speaking speech-language pathology students completed 3 tasks in an experimental within-subjects design.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Task 1 (baseline) involved transcribing English words. In Task 2, students transcribed 25 words spoken by a Cantonese adult. An average of 59.1% consonants was transcribed correctly (72.9% when Cantonese-English transfer patterns were allowed). There was higher accuracy on shared English and Cantonese syllable-initial consonants /m,n,f,s,h,j,w,l/ and syllable-final consonants. In Task 3, students identified consonant errors and transcribed 100 words spoken by Cantonese-speaking children under 4 additive conditions: (1) baseline, (2) +adult model, (3) +information about Cantonese phonology, and (4) all variables (2 and 3 were counterbalanced). There was a significant improvement in the students' identification and transcription scores for conditions 2, 3, and 4, with a moderate effect size. Increased skill was not based on listeners' proficiency in speaking another language, perceived transcription skill, musicality, or confidence with multilingual clients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Speech-language pathology students, with no exposure to or specific training in Cantonese, have some skills to identify errors and transcribe Cantonese. Provision of a Cantonese-adult model and information about Cantonese phonology increased students' accuracy in transcribing Cantonese speech.
authors.affiliation: aMacquarie University, Sydney, Australia. smcleod@csu.edu.au
authors.forename: Rebekah
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lockart
authors.forename: Sharynne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: McLeod
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008037:Linguistics; D008297:Male; D019303:Multilingualism; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D010700:Phonetics; D013067:Speech Perception; D013068:Speech Production Measurement; D013066:Speech-Language Pathology / Q000193:education* / Q000379:methods*; D013334:Students; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cantonese; assessment; multilingual; transcription